Social Unrest Is Predicted; Preparation Is Key To Survival...

4/27/2009: Commentary: Social Unrest Is Predicted; Preparation Is Key To Survival:

It is far too dangerous to ignore the growing signs of impending national social chaos. Even after absorbing some of the unsettling facts, you need to act calmly and decisively make sure you can get the things you need and protect what's yours - with undertones of frantic - while you still can. The signs of trouble abound.

Congressional Quarterly notes that pension fund losses are about to spill out onto the front pages - with nearly as much financial exposure as that which brought down America's banking giants.

It has not made much news yet, but the pension funds of millions of retirees is down by a whopping $1.9 trillion. This is why cities such as Philadelphia are quietly seeking federal money to bolster pension funds which CQ notes are 60% invested in the stock market - which itself has collapsed by a catastrophic 50% in just the last 18 months.

Not to scare you, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has quietly informed Congress that the "insurance" agency for private pension funds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, is at high risk of failure. (This will not become a "crisis" until desperate people start trying to tap early retirement money that is not there - for now the looming pension catastrophe remains a "dormant"
threat).

Worse, the former head of the U.S. Comptroller General Office, David Walker, essentially told Congress (before resigning in disgust) that the Social Security "Trust Fund" is a vault of IOUs; and Medicare will soon be effectively bankrupt.

Think about the widespread collapse of order and emergency services in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina - except on a national level. The implementation of gun-confiscation laws, looters and thugs terrorizing the elderly with impunity, besieged hospitals without power, doctors and medicine. People forcibly herded into "containment zones" and denied access to food, water, and medical attention. At least 45 patients died in one city-run hospital after being abandoned by doctors and staff.

More recently, a simple fuel pipeline break in America's barely-functioning, antiquated energy infrastructure spawned major gasoline delivery disruptions throughout the entire Southeastern Seaboard region. For over six weeks, drivers could not find gasoline except by standing in line for hours to get just a few gallons of fuel.

The recent regional collapse of the U.S. fuel infrastructure is a major warning sign that the energy supply chain is stretched dangerously thin - which combined with financial unrest has the strong potential to create major disruptions in the food supply chain (most population centers have only three days of food available to the public through supermarkets - meaning panic runs on food are a distinct possibility as the potential for social chaos continues to mount).

If you think these scenarios cannot happen in the United States of America, talk with anyone who has ever been in the path of a hurricane. They will confirm that by the time the general public catches on to the danger, getting everyday items such as gasoline, batteries, plywood, medicine, water, and food becomes next to impossible. Social services, police protection, public transportation, and highway systems become next to useless.

Past riots in Washington DC and Los Angeles portend a disturbing pattern when social chaos overwhelms order. The police almost always "pull back" and abandon entire neighborhoods to vicious mobs.

In the case of the 1992 Los Angeles Rodney King riots (as Caucasians and Asians were hunted down, robbed, and slaughtered), the police hunkered behind their defensive cordons as the murderous racist rage unfolded - the only outside contact law-abiding victims had in the riot zone were with intrepid news helicopters hovering overhead, broadcasting the racial programs on live TV.

You may even remember the only community to come out unscathed were sections of Los Angeles populated by Asian merchants - who fended off the mobs by placing shooters on the roofs of buildings within their defense perimeter. These heroic Korean merchants successfully protected their families, shops and homes. All because they knew how worthless bureaucrats truly are and made their own preparations. Where are you in this process?

The coming social chaos will magnify these problems a thousand-fold. In short, it is extremely important to be one step ahead of the general public during an unfolding crisis. And at least three long steps ahead of the government's draconian, blunderbuss, freedom-stealing response.

Whatever form the "triggering event" takes, not only will millions of Americans suddenly discover they are completely on their own, they will be completely unprepared for the government's draconian response to social chaos.

So there are two categories of people in America right now: Category 1 are the millions of clueless who blissfully assume their political overlords are going to take care of them. These are the people most likely to get caught flat-footed when all hell breaks loose. Category 2 are prudent, savvy people who are taking basic steps toward making their families and their households more self-reliant.